Every time I - a Detroiter - have taken part in one of those Cleveland vs Detroit arguments, I always easily shut down the Cleveland side and win the battle. How? I mention that I have lived in the metro Detroit area for all but three of my now 55 years, and the biggest rat I’ve seen in my life was in Cleveland, during a 90s Undercurrents festival.
I was at The Flats with my then-BF and one of the bands with whom we were living (our roomies comprised two bands, and members thereof played with three more), and he & I both saw a rat that was much bigger than any opossum either of us (he’s a Filthydelphia native) had ever seen. I’ve had cats who were smaller, and even Jamaican rats are much smaller than that fucker was. My BF jumped and screamed, and began running away while I stood pointing and laughing at the rat and then him.
All rivalry aside, I have visited Cleveland twice (for Undercurrents and to visit a college friend of my roomies who’s also a musician), and very much enjoyed it. Too bad the museum was closed the day our pal took me there; I know they have a V nice Ancient Egyptian collection whom I’d’ve loved meeting.
Mom worked as a computer tech for Burroughs (later called Unisys) and took off for periodic out of town training courses. She went to Atlanta and Chicago, I think a coupla other places too, and once was sent to Syracuse. She was soon informed that wags call it Siber-acuse, and was glad the class wasn’t during winter. I bet they get a lot less snow these days, 30+ years after her visit.
A friend moved to Colorado Springs from Detroit in the mid-to-late 80s. She said her 1st winter there was what she’d expected from CO: bitter cold - waaaay colder than Detroit, windy AF, feet and feet of snow, and it seemed to go on forever. The next was only about as bad as a really bad Detroit one. The ones that followed? She said she might as well have been in Michigan, there was so little difference. Seeing such a dramatic change over a mere handful of years really freaked her.
There are many reasons to love Detroit.
Diversity
Dearborn, MI is home to more members of the Middle Eastern diaspora than anywhere in the world. We also have a massive Latin population, based mostly in Mexicantown in Southwest Detroit. It’s shockingly easy to find Middle Eastern food that compares V well with the home countries;’ same with our Latin restaurants.
There are also superb seafood restaurants on the Lower East Side and points north, by Lake St Clair.
They do find some mighty big fish in the Detroit River, too, also.
Great street names
Urban wildlife
Fantastic neighborhoods, like Woodbridge
with fantastic historic homes, like ours:
Hooray for the Rust Belt!
